Garden tractor drive transmission mechanism



2 Sheets-Sheet l March 29, 1949. R. w. A'rwooD GARDEN TRACTOR DRIVETRANSMISSION MECHANISM Filed Oct. 16, 1945 March 29, 1949. R. wjA-rwoo2,465,567

GARDEN TRACTOR DRIVE TRANSMISSION MECHANISM Filed Oct. 16, 1945 2Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR AT WOO D ATTORNEY Patented Mar. 29, 1949 GARDENTRACTOR DRIVE TRANSMISSION MECHANISM Ralph W. Atwood, Canby, Oreg.,assignor to Charles L. Cooper, Aurora, Oreg.

Application October 16, 1945, Serial No. 622,628

1 Claim.

This invention relates to garden tractors and the like and the primaryobject of the invention is to mount the tractor frame, cultivating toolsand the motor on a single bull-wheel. By mounting all of these units ona single wheel the cultivator can be manipulated up and down the rows tobe cultivated by the operator with ease and with sensitive response tohis wishes.

A further object of the invention is to drive the bull-wheel with acleated track or chain, the same being mounted in such a manner as tosupport the weight of the machine on the bull-wheel, and at the sametime providing traction by the driving chain or track when the tractoris running in soft ground, this traction being available Withoutinterfering with the maneuverability of the tractor.

These and other incidental objects will be apparent in the drawings,specification and claim.

Referring to the drawings:

Figure 1 is a side view of my new and improved garden tractor.

Figure 2 is a plan view of Figure 1.

Figure 3 is a fragmentary enlarged detail showing the relation of thebull-wheel and the track or chain for driving the same.

Figure 4 is a fragmentary sectional view, taken on line 4-4 of Figure 3.

In the drawings:

My new and improved garden tractor consists of a frame I supported upona single bull-wheel 2 by a shaft 3 and the bearings d. Mounted to oneend of the frame I are garden tools 5, which may be any of the wellknown conventional type attachments. Also mounted to this end of theframe are wheels 6, these wheels are for controlling the depth of thetools 5 working within the soil, they are journalled to the crank armsl, which are pivotally mounted to the frame at 8, the angle of whicharms is controlled by the lever arm 9, control rod lll and lever l l,which is mounted to the handles I2 of the frame I.

The bull-wheel 3 is driven by the traction chain I3 from the countershaft I4, which is journalled in suitable bearings I5 on the frame I.The traction chain I3 runs in a groove I6 of the bullwheel 3 and hascross cleats Il affixed thereto for engaging the ground surface.

The counter shaft Ill is driven by the motor I8 from the gear box I9,having a clutch control lever 20 operated by the lever 2i mounted on thehandles I2. The shaft 22 extending from the gear box I9 has a sprocket23 keyed thereto for driving the chain 24, which in turn drives thesprocket wheel 25, rotatably mounted to the shaft 3.

Fixedly secured to the sprocket 25 is a sprocket 26 which drives thechain 2i and sprocket 28, keyed to the counter shaft i4. The sprocketas- 2 semblies 25 and 26 provide for a speed reduction between the motorI8 and the shaft I4.

I will now describe the operation of my new and improved garden tractor.One of the primary objects of my invention is to mount the frame I to asingle bull-wheel distributing the weight approximately equal on eitherside of the wheel. A slight additional weight being mounted to thegarden tool operating end. The object of mounting a tractor in thismanner is to provide ease of control of the cultivators 5 along the rowsto be cultivated, as the handles I2 may be shifted in any directionlaterally or vertically pivoting the wheel assembly on the lower part ofthe bullwheel at 29.

A further object of my invention is the providing of additional tractionover the ground surface without interfering with the operation of thepivot point 29 of the bull-wheel. I accomplish this by the drive ortraction chain I3 which drives the bull-wheel 2 and at the same timeproviding traction.

Referring to Figure 3 it will be noted that the cleats Il are tending toclimb over the ground surface as at 3l), pulling the bull-wheel up overthe ground at this point, similar to a crawler type tractor but stillproviding for the pivot point at 29. The feature of using the tractionchain I3 and its cleats I'I for traction or contact on the groundsurfaces working at an incline tending to pull or raise the wheel 2 outof the soft ground is the highlight of my invention, together with thefact that the whole tractor rests on the pivot point at 29 of thebull-wheel as far as its weight is concerned, as stated above stillhaving the traction chain I3, which is mounted to the bull-wheel at suchan angle to the ground surface as to afford additional traction butstill not interfering with the pivoting sidewise of the tractor by thehandles I2.

I have illustrated a broken line 3I which represents the position of ahousing over the mechanism, enclosing the same preventing the dust anddirt from falling on the mechanism thereunder. I have purposely leftthis covering off for convenience of illustration.

I do not wish to be limited to the exact structure illustrated in thedrawings and claimed herein, as other mechanical equivalents may besubstituted still carrying out the objects of my invention.

I claim:

In a garden tractor, a frame having parallel side members, alignedbearings mounted on said side members, a shaft journalled in said sidemembers, a bull wheel mounted on said shaft, a power unit mounted on theframe behind the bull wheel and having a relatively small sprocket, arelatively large sprocket revolubly mounted on said shaft, a chainconnecting said sprockets, a

necting the second relatively small and largel sprockets, a secondsprocket fixed on the second shaft, and a chain trained around thelast-mentioned sprocket and the bull wheel.

RALPH W. ATWOOD.

REFERENCES CITED f The following references are of record. inthe file ofthis patent:

Number'.

Number,

UNITED STATES PATENTS Name Dte Grant Aug; 6, 1912 Price Sept. 14, 1915Archer Oct. 17, 1916 Price Jan. 21, 1919 Walling Feb. 1, 1927 ZieglerAug. 25, 1936 FOREIGN PATENTS Country Date Great Britain 1872 GreatBritain Oct. 15, 1917

